A slight elaboration of things discussed on
The Goods radio show.
Tuesday mornings on FBi 94.5

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Canadian Gold Diggers – One More Reason Why Wedding Bands are Crap.

Canadian Gold Diggers, Barrick Gold are not very nice, and if I was a Canadian I would be very upset with them for lots of reason, here are but a few:

Not only does Barrick Gold not give a crap about things like threatened species of birds, ecology or people, but for the last 10 years they have also added dumping cyanide, human rights abuses, and murder to their mounting list of 'favourite nasty things to do'.

But the thing that most annoys me about Barrick Gold, is that they are fairytale wedding dream stealers - I can never look at a wedding band the same and associate it with a nice romantic notion, instead I'm more likely to think of an open-cut gold pit. Ugly, very ugly.

Recently, Barrick Gold have proposed a mining site expansion which means ripping-off another 5 gigalitres of water a year in one of Australia's most drought-stricken areas, Lake Cowal.

Lake Cowal is referred to traditional owners as the 'Sacred Heartland of the Wiradjuri nation”, yet for 10 years Traditional Owners have been fighting against Barack Gold Mines to shut the Lake Cowal open-cut gold pit down.

Says the Save Lake Cowal website “On 27 March 2006 the mine became fully operational despite opposition from Traditional Owners within the Wiradjuri Nation, the Coalition to Protect Lake Cowal and concerned citizens around Australia.

Barrick owns eight mines in Australia.

The company has been accused of a number of environmentally unsound practices, as well as illegal trading activities.

In January 2003, a 26-year old woman was killed in a pitwall collapse at a Barrick mine in Western Australia.”

Nice folk eh? So next time you're thinking about buying some gold, spare a thought that it takes 18 tonnes of earth, generating 12 cubic metres of tailings, to produce enough gold for an average wedding band. For more info visit: www.nodirtygold.org